Fresno's City Council swallowed hard Thursday and took a first step to test the market for a property the city never wanted to own -- about 3 acres around the Fresno Metropolitan Museum.
Sitting also as the city Redevelopment Agency's board, the council directed its staff to draft a solicitation for developers to build a "mixed-use" project on land adjacent to the museum.
The city is taking control of that land after being forced to make good on a $15 million bank loan it guaranteed for the museum's troubled renovation.
It was the second time the council considered reaching out to developers over that land. The first time, last April, the effort failed on a tie vote.
This time, it was approved unanimously. But several members noted that their action called only for the solicitation to be drawn up. Sending it out to developers will require another vote later.
"We're going to put off the hard decision-making," Council Member Andreas Borgeas said.
Still, there was more than a little bit of dreaming about the possibilities for the key block.
A mix of commercial and residential construction, three to four stories high, "could really change a significant part of downtown," said Council Member Larry Westerlund, who sponsored Thursday's action. Westerlund had voted against a similar move in April, before the city paid off the museum's failed loan.
Craig Scharton, director of the city's Downtown and Community Revitalization Department, assured the council "we do know that there's interest" in the museum block among developers.
But Council Member Lee Brand sounded a cautionary note: "I don't believe we're going to get a lot of action on this deal given the state of the economy."
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